Give us your views on air quality and travel in Portsmouth

29 August 2018

As a local authority, the government expects us to regularly review and assess air quality in Portsmouth.

Areas of the city where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels exceed, or are likely exceed, acceptable levels are known as Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs). As the local authority we must do all that we can to improve air quality in these areas. In Portsmouth there are five AQMAs but only one area, AQMA 6, currently exceeds government levels of nitrogen dioxide.

Earlier this year, Portsmouth City Council was awarded £450,000 from the government's £260million Clean Air Fund to deliver a series of sustainable travel initiatives and awareness-raising campaigns to improve air quality across the city, and in particular in the city's five Air Quality Management Areas.

In support of this work we have launched two surveys: Portsmouth Travel Survey and Portsmouth Air Quality Survey.

Portsmouth Travel Survey

Our Portsmouth Travel survey will help us understand people's travel behaviours and their openness to change. We want to understand how and why people are travelling through certain areas of Portsmouth, in particular our AQMAs and whether they would consider any other mode of travel.

We will use the information to inform our travel and transport schemes, which aim to improve air quality in Portsmouth. Responses will also be used to inform our campaign around anti-idling.